Tagged: blog

If all goes according to plan, I should be having a baby this week (or I’ve already had one & am reveling/drowning in baby bliss/delirium). So, as you might imagine, I’ve got a major case of baby on the brain. But I’m going to try to make that work to my advantage here today. And so, I present to you:

#1: Schedules are super important.

Or at least that’s one school of thought on babies, especially as they get older. When it comes to your blog, choosing a schedule and sticking to it is also super important.

If you post sporadically, you’ll have a hard time catching regular readers. Whether it’s once a week or once a month, choose a frequency and stick to it.

#2: You have to arrange for care.

You can’t just up and head out to work without making arrangements for your baby to be taken care of. Similarly, if you head out on vacation or are swamped with work, you shouldn’t just leave your blog unattended.

There will be times when you won’t be able to keep up with a typical blogging schedule. You’ve got three options: a) work ahead, b) schedule guest posts, or c) at least announce your time away ahead of time — and when you’ll be back — so your readers know what to expect.

#3: You have to be responsive.

When your baby cries, you can’t just ignore the poor thing. And similarly, you’re really missing out if your baby is smiling, cooing & laughing but you’re too busy to respond.

The same goes for your blog and other social media. When someone takes the time to comment or ask a question, you should make it a priority to respond.

Blogging Services at Sarah Writes Stories

Like a baby, a blog is a commitment. The good news is you can outsource a lot more of the blog work than the baby work. If you need someone to run your blog, I’d love to chat about how we can work together.

Telling stories has long been a part of who I want to be and how I want to give back to this world. I was first bitten by the writing bug in elementary school, and it’s a condition I’ve never been able to leave behind. I dabbled with some other ideas for careers in high school but eventually settled on getting my degree in journalism with a minor in public relations.

University-Honed Skills

At university, I learned how to get to the core of a story and make it relatable for a target audience. I discovered the power going viral when one of my editorials became the talk of the campus one week. And I learned how to work with people — both my fellow reporters and editors as well as my sources — to craft the best (i.e., the most effective, powerful, informative and engaging) version of a story possible.

I also honed my editing skills. After having developed a reputation for being a bit of a — how do I put this nicely? — grammar nazi (yes, that was the nice way of putting it), I was asked one question during my interview to be copy editor of the newspaper: “Do you have strong eyes?” After a few months of editing page after page after page of copy, I became a life-long glasses wearer. And it was as an editor that I learned how to help people find their own stories and how best to tell them.

Transitioning Into the Real World

After graduation, I began using my writing and editing skills whenever I could, and I’m proud to say my oldest client and I go back seven years. After several years of inconsistent, one-off projects here and there, in 2012, I had the opportunity to focus on taking my work from hobby to business. This year, I want to do even more to help both individuals and business owners discover their stories and communicate them to the world.

From Here to Eternity — Or Somewhere Thereabouts

SWS is all about helping you find both your story and the best way to tell it. If you own a business, that means having an effective blog, an active social media presence, and a rocking (and informative!) website. If you’re an individual with a story to tell (and who doesn’t?), that means finally getting a grip on what that story is and how to form it into a narrative to share with others.

I’ll be telling you more about how I can help you do that in the coming weeks, but for now, hop over to my Services page to see exactly how I can help you, and if you’re still aching to know more about what drives SWS — and me — then check out my About page, where you can read a little more about me as well as my manifesto for SWS. Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to getting to know you all in 2013!